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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24062899">Gently, he's only human</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknownlifeform/pseuds/unknownlifeform'>unknownlifeform</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Angst, Hand Jobs, M/M, Non-Graphic Smut, Pre-Crisis Core (Compilation of FFVII), Sane Sephiroth (Compilation of FFVII), Self-Doubt, Wing Grooming, Wing Kink, and also none of them was a dick (looking at you genesis), spoiler alert it's none of them, the canon divergence is basically what if they all had their wings since they were kids, three idiots arguing about which one of them is the monster</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:56:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,392</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24062899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknownlifeform/pseuds/unknownlifeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Wings were a fact of their existence. It was not a fact Sephiroth wanted or liked, but there was a small comfort in knowing his boyfriends were the same as he was.<br/>Not that they ever talked about it. It was just something they knew, that was there.<br/>Although maybe it could also be enjoyed.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos, Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos/Sephiroth, Angeal Hewley/Sephiroth, Genesis Rhapsodos/Sephiroth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>132</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Gently, he's only human</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello I wrote and edited this in precisely 3 days that's got to be a record for me. Literally the first time I write for this fandom after getting absorbed by it lol, hope the characterization came out as I wanted it. Also why there so little wing kink in this ao3 section</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The flat was so silent when Sephiroth stepped in that it appeared empty. He could have believed it, hadn’t it been for Angeal’s and Genesis’s swords propped up next to the door. He placed Masamune next to them, looking around for other signs of his boyfriends’ presence.</p><p>The sound of the door being opened must have been loud enough to hear, because Angeal came over from the other room just as Sephiroth took his coat off.</p><p>“Hey,” Angeal said. He was shirtless, wearing only a loose pair of pants, and he had a strange, almost bashful expression. “How was your day?”</p><p>“Uneventful, mostly. Yours?”</p><p>“The same. Lazard stuck me into training with the new recruits.”</p><p>Sephiroth nodded. “Where is Genesis? He told me there was something you wanted to discuss with me.”</p><p>The text had been unexpected, and frankly a little concerning. Genesis had not explained what needed to be discussed, only asked Sephiroth to come by his flat after he was done for the day. Genesis loved to surprise them, but the messages had been serious, none of the mischievous playfulness Genesis usually showed when he had something planned.</p><p>Angeal’s demeanor was not reassuring. He was nervous, no doubt about it. It was rare of him, and concerning.</p><p>“In the bedroom. And we don’t really want to discuss, exactly, we just wanted to share something with you,” he said.</p><p>Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. That had been a fairly common occurrence back when he had been added to the other two’s pre-existing relationship, but it had become rarer over time. They’d all been together for months now, and known each other far longer than that. Sephiroth couldn’t imagine anything that would make Angeal so nervous about sharing.</p><p>“Just come and see, alright?” Angeal asked.</p><p>Sephiroth followed him back to the bedroom, trying not to worry about what he may find there. His best guess would be some strange fetish he had not been aware his boyfriends shared, and while that may explain Angeal’s nervousness, Genesis had never been shy when it came to such things.</p><p>“Hello, dear,” Genesis said. He was lying face down on the bed, and he had to peer over his shoulder to glance at Sephiroth.</p><p>The position was not a surprise. Neither was Genesis’s state of undress, the man wearing nothing but his underwear. The large, black wing was more of a shock.</p><p>Another man might have froze or shouted at the sight. Sephiroth was not just any man, and those reactions were completely foreign to him.</p><p>And it was not as if he wasn’t aware that Genesis had a wing. He had known for a while now. He knew a similar limb was on Angeal’s back as well, hidden out of existence. Sephiroth’s back itched at the sight, along the line where his own wing attached to his skin. All three of them, by some chance of fate, shared the same secret, the same unnatural part.</p><p>However, none of them ever manifested it if it was not necessary. Sephiroth only let his own appear when he needed to slow down a fall or quickly reach a higher point, and never in front of other people. Genesis and Angeal were much the same. He had never seen either of his boyfriends casually lounge around like this.</p><p>“What’s happening?” he asked.</p><p>“Angeal is preening me,” Genesis said, as if it was the most obvious explanation to the current situation. It was not one Sephiroth had even considered, and he needed a second to process it.</p><p>He turned to Angeal. “Fixing his feathers,” Angeal said.</p><p>“It’s incredibly hard to do it on my own, there’s only so much I can reach. I’m sure you noticed,” Genesis said. He spoke in a conversational tone, seemingly perfectly at ease. Sephiroth may have fallen for it, hadn't he known this was the way Genesis acted when he was upset but trying to pretend nothing bothered him.</p><p>“I don’t. Preen,” Sephiroth said.</p><p>“You should. It makes flight a lot smoother. And it looks horrible when feathers stick around at the wrong angle.”</p><p>“Not as if anyone is seeing it,” Angeal murmured.</p><p>“No, but I will know, and it will bother me.”</p><p>He should have had peacock wings, Sephiroth thought. They would have been more suitable for someone as vain and dramatic as Genesis than the black feathers he had.</p><p>Black as Sephiroth’s own wing. The structure, however, was different, Sephiroth noticed. He had never had occasion to examine that part of Genesis, but he saw now that Genesis’s wing was long and slender. Sephiroth knew his own was different, larger and stronger in appearance.</p><p>“We do it for each other, every once in a while,” Angeal said. “I take care of it for him, and he does it for me.”</p><p>“And you want me to take part in it?” Sephiroth asked.</p><p>“Yes. I know it’s… weird, but we’ve been doing it for a while now, and didn’t want to keep it a secret. We just didn’t know how to tell you.”</p><p>Sephiroth understood that. Genesis and Angeal had been the ones to breach the subject of wings, back when they had started dating, looking the most uncomfortable that Sephiroth had ever seen them. Had it been up to Sephiroth, he probably would have kept his a secret.</p><p>Which meant he was quick to silence the side of him that had the gall of being offended his boyfriends had apparently kept this from him so far. He knew this was not an easy subject, one that they had rarely if ever talked about after that confession, which had ended with all three of them embarrassingly close to tears when they had realized they were all the same.</p><p>“You’re saying you want to preen me too,” Sephiroth said.</p><p>“Only if you are ok with it. You can just watch, if you prefer. Or we can drop this entirely, if you don’t want to deal with it.”</p><p>Genesis butted in. “I don’t do it to Angeal as often as he does it to me. He doesn’t always want it. We understand. But just so you know, it feels good.”</p><p>That Sephiroth had doubts about. Fixing feathers to be more aerodynamic, that was a logical thing to do, he understood. But in his experience, someone else’s hands on his wings were not ‘good’.</p><p>“I’ll watch,” Sephiroth said. He could not deny at least a little curiosity.</p><p>And he recognized that this in some way important to his boyfriends. If Angeal and Genesis wanted to share this with him, he would try to understand.</p><p>Angeal sat on the bed at Genesis’s side. Genesis’s wing had been half folded, but he stretched it out entirely at that point. Sephiroth went to sit on the other side of their boyfriend, where he would be able to see.</p><p>“We stopped here, right?” Angeals said, placing his hand about midway.</p><p>“Yes, about there.”</p><p>Angeal’s fingers pressed gently between the feathers, combing through them. His movements were slow, and he gave special attention to the longest ones, that he straightened one by one. Whenever he was done with a section he smoothed it down with the palm of his hand, making sure it was all in order before moving on.</p><p>Occasionally, a feather would come lose, but Genesis never gave sign that it had been painful for him. Sephiroth knew how much he ended up shedding whenever he manifested his wing, and imagined it had to be the same for them. All the loose feathers were placed by Angeal in a pile by the bed.</p><p>Genesis was looking at him out of the corner of his eye. He had his arms crossed in front of him and his face buried in them, but Sephiroth always knew when he was being watched. Genesis was probably trying to gauge his reactions. Sephiroth was trying to do the same.</p><p>“How often do you do this?” he asked.</p><p>“Not much. Genesis has me fix him maybe once a month or so. I let him do it less often,” Angeal said.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“I don’t like it.”</p><p>Sephiroth tilted his head. “Genesis says it felt good.”</p><p>“It does, believe me. It’s… I don’t like it when people see it.”</p><p>Now that Angeal said that, Sephiroth could not recall ever seeing his wing. He could only remember one occasion, during a mission. A brief flash of white as Angeal struggled not to fall as an explosion shook the cliff they stood on, gone as soon as he had righted his balance. It wasn’t as if Genesis showed it often, either, but Sephiroth had caught glimpses of it. Always in the context of needing it for balance or to break a fall, but it had happened.</p><p>“I like to see it,” Genesis said. “It’s beautiful.”</p><p>“So you’ve told me.”</p><p>Which was different than an, <em>it is</em>.</p><p>Genesis sighed in a long suffering way. Sephiroth wondered how often had this conversation happened before.</p><p>He ignored the hint of jealousy he felt knowing Genesis had seen that part of Angeal and Sephiroth hadn’t. Those two had known each other since they were children, it was not the first time they had shared something Sephiroth hadn’t and it wouldn’t be the last.</p><p>And there was also much they didn’t know about him, either. He had never showed them his wing like this. He wasn’t even sure if they had ever seen it at all. He was with Angeal on that, he did not like having it and even less he liked when people saw it. They were not like Genesis, who could take even the worst parts of himself and still spin them into a glamorous picture.
</p><p>Sephiroth was rarely ashamed of himself, but when he was, the source of it had to either be destroyed or hidden. Since he could not rip his own wing off, hidden it was. And it was very, very hard for him to show his shames to anyone. It was not a kind of trust that came to him easily, or at all.</p><p>Angeal, ever the man of honor, could be rather similar to him in that regard.</p><p>
  <span>But Genesis and Angeal were trusting </span>
  <em>him</em> now. Genesis was allowing him to see this, and Sephiroth knew Genesis’s feelings towards his wing were as complicated as the other two’s, even if he preferred to hide those tighter than he hid the limb. They trusted him to look at this and still be with them, and not run off in disgust.
</p><p>It made him feel… warm. He was not good at recognizing his own emotions, he knew that well. He was a SOLDIER and a weapon for Shinra, he needed to worry about orders, not feelings. That’s what he had been told all his life, although in a more roundabout and sugar coated way. Angeal and Genesis were teaching him now, but he had still much progress to make.</p><p>For the moment, he decided not to ponder on that warm feeling. It was a good one, and that was what mattered. He’d dissect it later.</p><p>Genesis was keeping himself in an uncharacteristic silence as Angeal took care of him. All the sound he made was pleased hums and sighs as Angeal worked out a particular spot. It almost made Sephiroth curious to feel Angeal’s fingers in his own wing too. But only almost.</p><p>Now that he was observing it better, Sephiroth noticed Genesis’s feathers were not quite the same color as his. They were both black, but it was a different one. Sephiroth’s black was just black, the color of soot left after a fire. Genesis’s instead was a shiny black, full of reflexes made by the artificial light of the bedroom’s lamp. Sephiroth wanted to touch it.</p><p>He even raised his hand to do it, but stopped before reaching out. That would definitely be out of line of him. He lowered his hand again, letting it rest on Genesis’s warm back.</p><p>“You can touch, if you want. I won’t be mad,” Genesis said.</p><p>In that case, then. Sephiroth raised his hand once again, but he stopped before he actually did it. He didn’t know how to do that. He was rarely gentle with his feathers, when he had to deal with them.</p><p>Angeal took Sephiroth’s hand, and guided it to the juncture between wing and shoulder. He slowly dragged Sephiroth’s palm along the feathers, letting him feel.</p><p>“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Angeal said.</p><p>“Yes.” They were soft.</p><p>Angeal smiled at him. “Don’t undo my hard work, alright?”</p><p>He went back to what he had been doing, and let Sephiroth on his own. Sephiroth tried to be as gentle as possible, not wanting to snag a single feather by accident. He knew far too well what it felt like to have them pulled.</p><p>There were more of them than he had expected. His hand could almost get buried in them. He spread his fingers, combing the feathers.</p><p>Genesis let out a shaky breath.</p><p>“Did I hurt you?” Sephiroth asked.</p><p>“No. <em>No.</em>”</p><p>Genesis’s voice was little more than a whisper. His face was entirely hidden in his arms now, his hands clenched on the pillows.</p><p>Sephiroth halted his motions. “Genesis-”</p><p>“It’s good, Sephiroth. It really is.”</p><p>With that reassurance, Sephiroth kept going.</p><p>“I’m almost done,” Angeal said, and sure enough he was taking care of the very last feathers. He had to get off from the bed for those, the wing too big for him to reach while sitting.</p><p>“Shall I turn?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>When Angeal finished, Genesis pushed himself up on his elbows and onto his knees. Sephiroth took his hand away, watching how the wing folded close.</p><p>He had never thought much of wings before. He usually tried not to think of his, and all his thoughts regarding his boyfriends’ had been focused on trying to figure out what kind of reason could make them appear. There had only been a sort of relief in knowing it hadn’t been Hojo’s experiments that had made him that way, because Angeal and Genesis had been like that since before joining SOLDIER, and no one had experimented on them before. It was hope that maybe what was going on with Sephiroth was somehow natural, too.</p><p>Now that he saw it like this, he thought there was a certain beauty to Genesis’s wing. A bizarre one, because humans were not meant to have wings, and creatures that were usually had two. Sephiroth had always been confused by why would a lone wing grow from his back, and not a pair as was more logical, and he still was.</p><p>Weird or not, it looked good on Genesis. It fit him well. Elegant, sleek.</p><p>Genesis turned to face Sephiroth. Despite the calm way he had acted so far, his eyes were on fire. He did not speak, only crawled closer, and pressed their mouths together with urgency. Sephiroth had not expected it, but he was far from displeased by how Genesis seemed to be trying to devour him, hands buried in Sephiroth’s hair in a way only two people in the world were allowed to.</p><p>He almost expected Genesis to take this further, from the hunger in the kiss, but it didn’t happen. Genesis broke it instead, but did not move away, pressing their foreheads together.</p><p>“Thank you,” he said.</p><p>Sephiroth was not sure what exactly he was being thanked for, but he could make a few guesses. <em>Thank you for not treating me like a monster, </em>was an idea, because he knew that’s what he would have thought in Genesis’s place.</p><p>“Thank <em>you</em>,” he replied, “for letting me.”</p><p>Genesis smiled. “Ah, my dear, I thought I had made it clear that you are welcome to touch me whenever you feel like it.”</p><p>With that, Genesis laid back down, now on his back. Sephiroth moved away, allowing him to stretch his wing.</p><p>“Is that not uncomfortable?” he had to ask.</p><p>“Not really. I’m fairly sure there’s something strange with my joints, but it’s not really a problem. Not if I don’t sleep on it, at least,” Genesis said.</p><p>To be fair, Sephiroth also thought there was something strange with the joints. For starters, there were probably too many of them. He decided not to question it. It wasn’t as if any of that wing was meant to exist at all.</p><p>“Do you want to help me with it?” Angeal asked.</p><p>Sephiroth glanced at Genesis’s face. His boyfriend was smiled at him. A genuine smile, not the sultry one Genesis usually offered when lying mostly naked in bed. It was permission, maybe even encouragement.</p><p>“What am I supposed to do?” Sephiroth asked.</p><p>He and Angeal had to shift their positions a little, until they found a way for Angeal to settle behind Sephiroth while still being able to look and touch. Once again, Angeal took Sephiroth’s hands, guided them in the feathers.</p><p>“Run your fingers through them, like this,” he instructed. “Watch the directions most feathers take, and try to see if any are crooked. Be careful, it’s a sensitive area.”</p><p>Sephiroth tried to do as told. His hands brushed against Genesis’s side as he combed through the down.</p><p>“Ouch,” Genesis said, when Sephiroth straightened a feather a little too fast.</p><p>Sephiroth took his hand away. “Apologies.”</p><p>“You’re good, don’t worry. Angeal pulled a lot worse before he got the hang of it. You’ll do better next time.”</p><p>That nice, warm sensation was there again. Genesis was willing to let Sephiroth do this more times, trusted Sephiroth to take care of him with this.</p><p>Now that Sephiroth had gotten over the initial surprise, he could understand just what kind of vulnerable position this was. Emotionally, because Sephiroth might have reacted badly, but physically too. It would be so easy for him to hurt Genesis this way, to rip and pull the feathers until he bled and twist the wing until the bones broke.</p><p>Sephiroth knew how hard it could be to be vulnerable. It was way harder for him than it was for his boyfriends, because they had had practice before. With each other, with their families, with friends they had known in their childhood. Sephiroth had never had that practice. Being vulnerable was being weak, and being weak was unacceptable. How he still struggled to relinquish the slightest bit of control to Genesis and Angeal, even if on a battlefield he would have trusted them with his own life.</p><p>It always did things to him whenever one of his boyfriends showed vulnerability to him instead. He treasured those moments dearly. Now, with the strangeness of this all still not faded, he put as much care as he could in preening Genesis, making sure every feather was as good as it could be.</p><p>“You learn fast,” Angeal said. “I don’t know how many times I ended up pulling the first time I tired.”</p><p>“When was it?”</p><p>“Before SOLDIER. We were fifteen, sixteen at most.”</p><p>Sephiroth hummed. How strange it was to think that his boyfriends used to be civilians, normal people, living in a small town where plants grew and the sky was clear, until they’d joined Shinra at seventeen. Sephiroth had already been a First Class SOLDIER at seventeen, and he’d never been a civilian his whole life.</p><p>“How old were you when it manifested?” he asked. The question had been on his mind for a while, but he had never known if it would be wise to bring up the matter.</p><p>“Eleven,” Angeal said. “I don’t even know how it happened. One moment I was a normal kid, the next it burst out of my back.” He huffed. “I was so scared I barely left my room for a week. Kept checking in the mirror to see if I was going to grow horns or tentacles next.”</p><p>“You thought you were turning into a monster,” Sephiroth said.</p><p>“Can you blame me?”</p><p>He couldn’t. It would be a lie if Sephiroth said he had not had the same fear, or that the doubt did not still plague his mind at times.</p><p>Genesis smiled. “I remember when I got mine. He was the only one around to see it happen, luckily. First time I’d ever seen him cry.”</p><p>“You cried?”</p><p>“I’d spent years hiding it and thinking I was a monster. I don’t think it was uncalled for,” Angeal said.</p><p>“It happened later for you, then?”</p><p>Genesis nodded. “Yeah. I was thirteen.”</p><p>“And he fell off a tree.”</p><p>Genesis’s eyes had been fixed on the ceiling, but now he turned to glare at Angeal. “You didn’t have to share that fact.”</p><p>“You didn’t have to share that I cried, either.”</p><p>Genesis stuck out his tongue in a childish way.</p><p>“No one else knew about them, then?” Sephiroth asked.</p><p>“Nah. It would have been looking for trouble, no doubts about that,” Genesis said, waving a hand in dismissal of the idea.</p><p>Sephiroth did not miss how Genesis had completely avoided to mention any feelings <em>he</em> had had about his wing. Typical of him. Genesis always oh so loved to make his feelings on everything known, and Sephiroth had learnt that it was much more meaningful to notice when he avoided mentioning them instead.</p><p>Maybe thirteen years old Genesis had also hidden inside his room for a week, scared he was a monster. And if Sephiroth knew him, it was more likely he had just learnt how to embrace that fear, rather than dismissing it.</p><p>Angeal’s chin came to rest on Sephiroth’s shoulder. “I told my mother. She was… rather upset. Can’t blame her, really, it’s not everyday your son comes home with some freakish new limb.”</p><p>Sephiroth had words in his throat to tell Angeal, to tell him that he was no freak, that he was human and a wonderful one at that. He couldn’t quite get them past his tongue, however. Even if he meant them, they would not be honest coming from him, not when he had also thought the same about himself and for the very same reason.</p><p>“What about you? Does anyone else know?” Genesis asked.</p><p>“Hojo and some of his scientists.”</p><p>Genesis grimaced. “I’m sorry, darling. I assume it wasn’t your choice to tell them.”</p><p>“No.” As if he would have been ever been able to keep secrets, back in his childhood.</p><p>“When did it happen?” Angeal asked.</p><p>“I was eight.”</p><p>“Eight?”</p><p>Sephiroth hummed.</p><p>Genesis whistled. “And here I thought Angeal was the early bloomer.”</p><p>“Did they hurt you?” Angeal asked, in that concerned voice he always had when talking about Sephiroth’s early life.</p><p>“Hojo ran some tests. He ripped a few feathers.”</p><p>“Have I ever told you my opinion of Hojo, dearest?” Genesis said.</p><p>“I believe so.”</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>Angeal’s arms wrapped around Sephiroth’s mid section. The heat of his body was comforting against Sephiroth’s back. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>“It was just another test.”</p><p>“You were a child, not a lab rat.”</p><p>Instead of replying, Sephiroth focused on Genesis’s feathers. On this side, some of them didn’t quite look black as much as the darkest of browns. Genesis once again relaxed under Sephiroth’s touch, making a pleased little sound.</p><p>Angeal’s brushed his lips against Sephiroth’s jaw. “I’ll take care of some too.”</p><p>Sephiroth did not have a problem with that. Angeal stood up and went to fix the feathers at the tip of the wing, working his way towards Sephiroth.</p><p>“Goddess, you are spoiling me,” Genesis said.</p><p>It was easy for Sephiroth to get convinced the activity had to pleasurable after all, between Genesis’s pleased sounds and the expression he was wearing. His face looked very similar to the one he made when Sephiroth ran his hands underneath his shirt. Pleased, and somewhat aroused.</p><p>A glance lower showed Sephiroth that there was indeed a bit of a tent in Genesis’s underwear. Not a big one yet, but getting there.</p><p>“As Angeal said, it’s sensitive there,” Genesis purred, having noticed the direction of Sephiroth’s gaze. “But don’t worry about it, darling. We can think about it after this is done with.”</p><p>Sephiroth didn’t insist. While the situation was intimate, he didn’t really find it erotic. It was more similar to the intimacy that comes with cuddling together on the couch.</p><p>They did not speak more after that, only listened to the occasional instructions Genesis gave. Sephiroth found himself thinking he wouldn’t have minded to work through the whole wing by himself, and he was almost disappointed when his hands met Angeal’s in the middle.</p><p>Angeal ran a hand along the length. “There you go. All pretty.”</p><p>“Thank you dearly,” Genesis replied, sitting up and folding his wing in.</p><p>When he kissed Sephiroth then it was a chaster gesture than before, despite Sephiroth knowing Genesis’s interest had not gone down. It was only a brief peck, before he turned to thank Angeal in the same way.</p><p>Genesis cupped Angeal’s face. “Shall we move on, or…?”</p><p>The nervousness came back to Angeal. He stayed still for a few seconds, eyes fixed in Genesis’s, and then his gaze darted to Sephiroth. Then he sighed. “Make space.”</p><p>“You know there’s no need to-”</p><p>“I know, Gen. I want to show him.”</p><p>Genesis and Sephiroth moved away, leaving the whole bed to Angeal. Sephiroth noticed how Genesis kept his wing manifested, even now that they were done.</p><p>Angeal knelt on the bed, his back to them. With a flutter of white, his wing appeared from his right shoulder.</p><p>It looked stronger than Genesis’s, yet more slender than Sephiroth’s. And it was entirely white in color. Sephiroth marveled at that.</p><p>“Tell me, dear, was I lying when I said it was beautiful?” Genesis asked, one hand on Sephiroth’s shoulder.</p><p>“No.” Sephiroth’s gaze ran over it, and then he noticed a detail he had missed at first. “You have two.”</p><p>A second, smaller wing was almost hidden behind the larger one.</p><p>Genesis hummed. “I imagine one wouldn’t be enough to lift him off the ground.”</p><p>“What’s that supposed to mean?” Angeal asked. His face was turned away, and his voice was casual in a way that was entirely forced.</p><p>“It means your muscles are incredibly sexy, ‘Geal, but they’re also a lot.”</p><p>“You’re just still mad I’m taller than you.”</p><p>“Barely.”</p><p>Angeal shook his head, and sighed. “Let’s get this done with.”</p><p>“Wait.”</p><p>Angeal turned to Sephiroth. “What is it?”</p><p>“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable because of me,” he said. The shape of the words was strange in his mouth. That kind of statements he had also learnt from Angeal and Genesis, but they still came awkwardly to him. All his life he had either given or been given orders. Not asked. Not allowed to bail out.</p><p>Angeal smiled. “Don’t worry.”</p><p>Sephiroth nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see the dark shape of Genesis’s wing.</p><p>“Hold on,” he said, standing up. His stomach rolled, but… no. They had trusted him. He could do the same. He undid the straps around his chest quickly.</p><p>“Sephiroth?” Genesis asked.</p><p>“Don’t touch. Not… yet.”</p><p>He let his wing manifest. He heard both his boyfriends gasp as he did.</p><p>“You didn’t have to,” Angeal said.</p><p>“It was only fair,” Sephiroth replied.</p><p>He already wanted to hide it again. More than his enhancements, more than his eyes, this was proof that he was not a normal human being. Maybe not even human at all. He had been told, all his life, that he was above other people, and he could believe it, most of the time, but this. This was the thing, most of all, that made him question whether he was not just some freak of nature sewed together by experiments.</p><p>He kept it right where it was. He was General Sephiroth, he had more than enough self control for that, he could stand under his boyfriends’ judgement. He would not insult the two people he loved the most by acting as if a trait they all shared was something to be ashamed of.</p><p>“Beautiful,” Genesis whispered. “<em>Wings of light and darkness spread afar, she gui-</em>”</p><p>Sephiroth was pulled out of the seriousness of the situation by the sound of a pillow smacking against the back of Genesis’s head.</p><p>“Don’t you quote Loveless when we’re having a moment,” Angeal said.</p><p>Genesis turned, looking most offended. “Oh, please. That is the <em>best</em> occasion to quote it. One day I will manage to drill some appreciation into your head.”</p><p>The two of them glared at each other, holding eye contact. It only lasted a few seconds, before Angeal looked away, snorting. Genesis gave up on keeping his grin off his face as Angeal burst out laughing.</p><p>A smile also touched Sephiroth’s lips. It was completely irrational to be relieved that his boyfriends did not fear him for his inhuman limb, when they were all the same. They were not some perfectly normal and pristine scientist, unable to hide the way it disturbed them to see a bird’s wing sticking out of a boy’s back.</p><p>It was Genesis and Angeal, who had not judged him for anything. Not for how he struggled to fit into conversations and interactions, not for the cat like appearance of his eyes. Genesis had even written a poem about those same eyes, a horrible thing full of bad metaphors, and sent it anonymously to the Silver Elite. Sephiroth should have known not to worry about the reactions of a man who could compare the glow of his ‘bright emeraldine eyes’ to the ‘blessed light of Materia’ because they both had a ‘healing, blessed power’ to them.</p><p>And yet. Annoying things, emotions, always putting irrational thoughts in his head. Although he couldn’t fault them entirely, not when they had led to him being in this room with Angeal and Genesis.</p><p>Genesis’s eyes focused on Sephiroth’s wing. “We won’t touch, love, but know I’m itching to come there and fix that mess. Do you take no care of it at all? Your feathers are sticking up everywhere.”</p><p>“Another time,” Sephiroth said. Maybe.</p><p>“You know where to find us.” Genesis tilted Sephiroth’s face his way as he knelt back on the bed. Sephiroth melted into the kiss, yet another reassurance he hadn’t known he had needed.</p><p>“Shall we take care of Angeal, then?” Genesis asked, pulling away.</p><p>Angeal sighed. “No reason to put it off more,” he said, lying down. His larger wing lifted, giving them better access to the smaller one.</p><p>“We start with that one, usually,” Genesis explained. “And while I get to it, I have a task for you.”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“His muscles always get knotted on that shoulder, must be having to deal with two wings. Mind giving him a massage?”</p><p>Sephiroth didn’t. He straddled Angeal’s thighs, digging his fingers in just as Genesis started picking at the feathers.</p><p>Angeal groaned. “You two are really going out of your way to make me enjoy this.”</p><p>“Yes. And I will keep it up until I get it into your head that you’re allowed to.”</p><p>“Gen...”</p><p>“Geal.”</p><p>“You’re a hypocrite, you know that?”</p><p>Genesis clicked his tongue. “So are you.”</p><p>All three of them were. All three of them thinking that the other two could not possibly be monsters, while also being convinced they were. Yes, a trio of hypocrites indeed. yet another way they fit well together.</p><p>They stopped arguing for the time being, and Angeal relaxed under his boyfriends’ ministrations. He did not sigh happily as Genesis had done, but then again, it was nearly impossible to make Genesis shut up.</p><p>It didn’t take long for Genesis to finish working on the smaller wing. He placed his hand on the larger one when he was done, having Angeal lower it.</p><p>“Do you want to take the tip or the base?” Genesis asked.</p><p>“Either.”</p><p>Genesis hummed, and went to take the tip.</p><p>Angeal’s feathers were in much more disarray then Genesis’s had been. It was clear he took less care of them. Sephiroth had to work slowly to sort through them. There were also more loose ones, small feathers mostly trapped in the down.</p><p>They were also softer than Genesis’s had been. Angeal’s wing was much… fluffier. It was not an adjective Sephiroth normally used for his boyfriends, but there wasn’t really another way to describe it.</p><p>Genesis let out a rather dramatic sigh. “You really need to let me take care of them more often. Or let Sephiroth do it, at least.”</p><p>“Genesis...”</p><p>“I would not mind helping,” Sephiroth said.</p><p>Angeal took a deep breath. “It’s really not necessary.”</p><p>“The day you’ll try to fly and crash because you had too many out of place you’ll tell me if it’s necessary or not,” Genesis replied. “And I know how you love to fly.”</p><p>“True,” Angeal conceded.</p><p>Genesis turned to Sephiroth. “He used to drag me on flights all the time, back in Banora. He didn’t even <em>try</em> to fly after I convinced him to, but after we found out we could he barely kept his feet on the ground anymore.”</p><p>“We should take Sephiroth, next time,” Angeal said. “Fly, the three of us.”</p><p>Sephiroth frowned. “For pleasure?”</p><p>“Yes. Is that a problem?”</p><p>“I’ve never flied without a reason to.”</p><p>Angeal propped himself up on his elbow to look at him, getting an annoyed protest from Genesis when the motion displaced his wing. “Really?”</p><p>Angeal huffed, and lied back down. “Then we have to. If there’s something good about these things, it’s flying. We’ll have to find time.”</p><p>Sephiroth wasn’t sure he understood, but that was the first time Angeal had spoken about wings in positive terms, and Sephiroth wouldn’t turn him down.</p><p>Personally, he thought their current situation was also a good side. Preening his boyfriends was soothing. He liked the feeling of carding his fingers through soft feathers. He had never thought, once, that taking care of another could be so pleasant, had always thought it was a duty. Now, however, he had grown to love making his boyfriends feel good.</p><p>Especially with this. With something Angeal had hidden in shame for a decade, something that Genesis tried to pretend he was not bothered by.</p><p>Feelings. Some days Sephiroth was glad no amount of poking and prodding by scientists and handlers had eradicated them from him.</p><p>Sephiroth’s wing twitched. It must be truly nice, to have someone take care of your feathers. There was hardly any pleasure Genesis refused, but to have Angeal put away his conflicted feelings like this it really had to feel great. Maybe…</p><p>No. Not today, at least. Sephiroth could not lie down and let his boyfriends touch him that way, no matter how much he trusted them. He could not stay still under them as they had their way with him. He could not.</p><p>But at first, he also hadn’t been able to let them cuddle him as he slept, or to give them any form of control over him during sex. But then he had learnt how to do both, and enjoy it. Maybe one day he’d also let them do this.</p><p>When Angeal turned, after they were done with that side of his wings, he did not lie down again, but sat up on the bed.</p><p>“The small one makes it hell to lie down on top of it,” he explained.</p><p>Angeal almost never slept on his back. Sephiroth had noticed it before. Always on his side or on his belly. It could have been preference, but Sephiroth was always able to feel his wing, even when it was not manifested. It was most annoying, to have his clothes feel constricting because of a limb that was not even physical. Maybe Angeal had a similar problem.</p><p>Angeal’s eyes stayed closed while they worked. After a while, out of curiosity, Sephiroth glanced to see if he was having the same reaction Genesis had had. It was more difficult to tell with Angeal’s loose pants, but Sephiroth thought he did see a hint of interest there.</p><p>When they were done, there was a small pile of feathers in a corner, black and white alike. The black ones were Genesis’s, for the most part, but some were Sephiroth’s, that had fallen off while his wing was out. He was not sure why that would make him feel happy as he did.</p><p>Genesis placed a kiss on Angeal’s wing. Angeal shivered.</p><p>“Thank you for indulging us,” Genesis said.</p><p>Angeal smiled. “Thank you,” he replied, and left it at that.</p><p>Now that this was over, Sephiroth was not sure how to proceed. He opted for the only idea he had, and looked down towards Angeal’s crotch. “Do you want help with that, as well?”</p><p>“Come here,” Angeal said, and Sephiroth did.</p><p>Despite Angeal’s apparently calm demeanor, his kiss was bruising, and his hips bucked up when Sephiroth’s hand touched him above his pants. Sephiroth was not aroused, not yet, but he certainly did not mind that responsiveness. Even more he liked knowing he had caused it.</p><p>Angeal made a choked sound against Sephiroth’s lips. Opening his eyes, Sephiroth saw Genesis had buried his hand in the soft underside of the wing, near the base, and dragged his fingers in a way that was less combing and more like gently scratching. Angeal’s hand on Sephiroth shoulder was gripping him bruisingly tight. Yes, Sephiroth definitely had to file wings under ‘erogenous zone’.</p><p>He left Angeal’s lips to kiss along his neck instead, and Angeal tilted his head back, allowing him. Genesis busied himself with the other side of Angeal’s throat, he and Sephiroth leaving trails along it.</p><p>The sound Angeal made when Sephiroth took him out of his pants was wonderful. Angeal was being louder than he usually was, maybe from the added stimulation, maybe from the feelings involved. Sephiroth didn’t know which was it, but he didn’t care. He just loved having Angeal losing himself like this in his arms.</p><p>“You get so worked up whenever someone plays with your feathers,” Genesis murmured. “It’s such a pity you never let them out.”</p><p>“Right back at you,” Angeal said, and reached out to drag his hand against Genesis’s wing, earning a moan from Genesis. Then it was Angeal’s turn to groan, and Sephiroth did not see, but he had the feeling Genesis had bitten down on Angeal’s shoulder.</p><p>Not to be outdone, Sephiroth also latched on a spot on Angeal’s throat, sucking a mark on it. The position would have been a compromising one, but that was not a problem. The SOLDIER uniform turtleneck would cover it, admitting it did not fade by the next day. Sephiroth found himself annoyed at times by the speed with which their enhancements healed any mark left on his boyfriends.</p><p>But it didn’t really matter, in the end. There was a possessive part of him that loved marking Angeal and Genesis up, but marks were just for show. They were only visible proof of something deeper. Angeal’s wings shook as Genesis kept caressing it, and Sephiroth was now one of the only two people who had ever touched it. Who needed a mark, with that kind of knowledge.</p><p>Angeal tensed and moaned, and Sephiroth kept stroking him through his peak, slowing only when Angeal began to grimace with the sensitivity.</p><p>Genesis stopped playing with the feathers, smoothing them down gently instead, the touch lighter than before. “Good?”</p><p>Angeal smiled. “You messed it all up again, Gen. Ruined all of Sephiroth’s hard work.”</p><p>“I’m sure Sephiroth wouldn’t mind fixing them again.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t,” Sephiroth confirmed.</p><p>“I don’t doubt that,” Angeal said.</p><p>Genesis turned to Sephiroth, a smirk on his face. “Good. Now, I do believe the two of us have some business to finish”</p><p>Sephiroth agreed. He grabbed Genesis’s wrist and pulled him, so that Genesis had no choice but to sit on Sephiroth’s lap.</p><p>Angeal extricated himself from them, and lied down on bed. His wings opened and closed a couple times, and then disappeared. Sephiroth tried not to feel disappointed.</p><p>“You could have kept them out,” Genesis said.</p><p>“This bed already barely fits the three of us.”</p><p>“True. I’ll have to get a bigger one.”</p><p>“Don’t you have anything better to do than chat, Gen?”</p><p>Sephiroth breath hitched as his boyfriend rocked his hips, grinding down. “I can multitask,” Genesis said, grinning.</p><p>“I’d rather have you full attention,” Sephiroth replied, hands grabbing Genesis’s hips to guide his movements.</p><p>“Oh, someone’s feeling neglected,” Genesis purred, his arms wrapping around Sephiroth’s neck.</p><p>Sephiroth fought not to flinch when Genesis’s fingers brushed against his feathers.</p><p>“Sorry.” Genesis immediately pulled his hand away, placing it on Sephiroth’s skin.</p><p>Sephiroth shook his head. “It’s alright.”</p><p>“Will you keep it out?”</p><p>“Will you?”</p><p>Genesis kissed him quickly. “With you, whenever you want.”</p><p>Wanting to see if he would have the same reaction as Angeal, Sephiroth experimentally buried his hand in Genesis’s wing. He was not disappointed. Genesis moaned loudly, and his wing beat once, almost throwing them both off balance.</p><p>There were better ways to do this than just rubbing their hips together like this, many ways Sephiroth would have used to show Genesis how he felt in that moment. But Angeal was right that the bed was only so big, and Sephiroth did not know how to maneuver them with their wings in the middle. Still, he made sure to kiss Genesis as deeply as he could, hoping it would convey the message.</p><p>Genesis decided to take things in his own hands, literally, breathing curses against Sephiroth’s lips as he struggled with Sephiroth’s belt, quickly taking them both out of their respective clothes. He stroked the two of them together, and Sephiroth focused his attention instead on stroking the sleek feathers under his fingers.</p><p>Behind Sephiroth, the mattress dipped. He did not need to turn and see to know Angeal had knelt behind him, on the opposite side as Sephiroth’s wing. Sephiroth’s hair was pushed away, making space for the tongue that ran along his earlobe. Angeal’s hand instead sneaked between Sephiroth and Genesis, and by the way Genesis’s back arched Sephiroth guessed Angeal was toying with his nipple.</p><p>Sephiroth shut down the instinctual part of him that still told him it was not safe to be surrounded by people this way. Old instinct born from training and sparring, that refused to see others as anything but a threat. He had grown used to ignoring it, when it came to Genesis and Angeal. He forced himself to just enjoy the sensations instead. It wasn’t even as if he had given up control, no, Genesis’s noises as he played with his feathers were entirely Sephiroth’s doing.</p><p>Genesis screamed when he came, throwing his head back so that Sephiroth could not even silence him with his kiss. Always so loud. A good kind of loud, one that made Sephiroth burn hot.</p><p>And what a picture Genesis made now, his black wing spread open as his whole body tensed and then relaxed. That day had done more to convince Sephiroth there was good about their wings than possibly his whole life.</p><p>“Go on,” Angeal whispered in his ear.</p><p>Sephiroth could not possibly refuse that, not when Genesis’s hand was still moving around him.</p><p>The three of them fell back on the bed, and Sephiroth immediately became aware of how he ended up lying awkwardly on top of his wing. After a moment of hesitation, he willed the limb away. Genesis did the same, snuggling up to Sephiroth’s side.</p><p>“We have to clean up,” Angeal said, always the voice of reason.</p><p>“You came first, you clean up,” Genesis replied.</p><p>Angeal groaned, but sat up. “Lazy ass.”</p><p>Sephiroth ran a hand down Genesis’s back, feeling the warm, human skin, with no traces of the wing hidden out of existence. “Thank you.”</p><p>Angeal cupped Sephiroth’s face. “Love you.”</p><p>Love. Maybe that was the warm feeling from earlier, the one Sephiroth hadn’t known how to name. He should have been well used to recognizing it by now, and yet it always managed to take him by surprise.</p><p>“Love you too.”</p><p>Genesis hummed, and shifted so that his face wasn’t buried in Sephiroth’s chest. He took a deep breath.</p><p>“I’m warning you, if it’s a Loveless quote again you’re cleaning yourself up.”</p><p>“You’re a barbarian,” Genesis replied. “Plain old love you too, then, since Angeal doesn’t appreciate art.”</p><p>“It’ll do,” Sephiroth said.</p><p> </p>
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